Chapter Twelve

"Now," Yusuke said.

"No."

"Now," Hiei said, moving to stand next to Yusuke and scowling.

"No," Kurama repeated, matching his pitch to Hiei's. He didn't move an inch, nor did his facial expression change in the slightest, despite the fact that the other two were now standing shoulder to shoulder and dead opposite him.

"We won't get another chance like this," Yusuke insisted.

"Of course we will," Kurama replied. His tone was contemptuous. "You think this is the only summit that will ever take place between the demon drug lords? They meet two or three times a year at the least to--"

"All three of the targets you identified will be present at this meeting," Hiei interrupted.

Kurama turned, ever so slightly, so he was facing only Hiei instead of both of them, and his eyes narrowed. "A fact which I am most grateful to you, Hiei, for taking it upon yourself to verify. Why, if it weren't for you, for your decision to take it upon yourself to go scouting for trouble, we might not even have known this summit was taking place. To think that we might have been training right now instead of arguing."

Hiei copied Kurama's tone of voice, mimicking it so well that even in the midst of the all-important argument, Yusuke had a brief urge to laugh. "Yes... and we could also be running right now, instead of arguing. It's unthinkable. Where would we be without you, Kurama, to make sure that we get bogged down discussing this instead of taking action. Good teamwork."

"Teamwork?" Kurama had the all-too-familiar expression of wanting to kill Hiei on his face. "You went behind my back, you deliberately sought out a distraction that would pique Yusuke's interest, and you presented it to him before you presented it to me because you knew I would tell you he wasn't ready. You know he's not ready."

"Guys, I'm still here," Yusuke said.

They ignored him. He hadn't really expected anything else. Hiei glared at Kurama like he hadn't even heard Yusuke speak and said, "You told the boy to pick the conditions of his training here, and he picked them! The targets he selected are gathering in one location and you want to sit on your--"

"The first condition of Yusuke's training is that he be able to get past both of us. Which he cannot do."

"So we'll make that the second condition! If it were ten years ago, fox, you would have been the first to say--"

"If it was ten years ago, Yusuke would be at his full strength and you wouldn't have gone behind my back."

When a brief, strained silence followed those words, Yusuke decided to make another try at getting back into the argument. He took a placating tone. "Kurama, I know I'm not as strong as I used to be. But so what? I've got you two to back me up. I'm not addicted anymore and I know what I can and can't do, I won't do anything stupid or heroic. You guys can pick up the slack. But I have to do this. I have to."

Kurama didn't once look at him. It made him want to strangle the fox. But Kurama and Hiei were locked in a staring match--Yusuke sensed they were testing each other somehow, and so he subsided in his attempts to be heard and there was another brief silence. Kurama broke it, his voice low and deliberate. "You are going to get Yusuke killed, Hiei. And the reason he will be dead is because you couldn't bear my company and had to escape."

Yusuke felt Hiei stiffen next to him. He didn't have to look to know that his face had gone pale; didn't have to look to know that Kurama had just completely and thoroughly won this battle, unless Yusuke did some fast talking.

He knew that Kurama was right about Hiei's motivation; he knew Kurama might also be right about Yusuke's ability to survive. But he was ready to forgive Hiei for wanting to escape the world that he and Kurama now lived in, and as to his own death--he didn't care, one way or the other, if he could go out like this.

So he did what he knew he shouldn't--he stopped trying to pacify and instead attacked Kurama. "The only reason you're resisting this is because Hiei came up with it. If you really thought I was going to die you'd be tying me down instead of arguing. None of these thugs can be as strong as you or Hiei. So I don't really need to be able to beat people that strong before we do this. Especially since you're both coming with me. Right?"

He fixed Kurama with a stern look as he said that. Kurama sent him a withering one in return. "Of course I'm coming with you. Provided I fail to prevent you from going in the first place."

Neither one of them said anything else. There was no need for them to. It was understood that Yusuke would go unless he was physically prevented from doing so; it was also understood that Kurama would be where Yusuke was, wherever that turned out to be. The only thing left to do was wait for Hiei's decision. It would decide the fight, and they all knew it, and the only question was whether Hiei's own motives or the hole Kurama's words had punched in them would rule the day.

The three of them stood in silence for a long moment, Hiei staring at the ground while the other two watched him. When he finally spoke it was quietly, and without the contempt that would have usually accompanied such a sentence. "I'm going. I don't care what either of you do."

Yusuke drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. Kurama nodded, acknowledging his defeat--but he wasn't going to quit without the final blow, and Yusuke knew even as Kurama drew his breath to speak that this was going to be bad. "But of course, you do care," Kurama said. "Yet you care either too little or too much, and either way it has driven you to make the most blatant error I have ever seen you make. I truly can't make myself believe that getting out of here matters more to you than Yusuke's life; and yet, I can't make myself believe you are so dense as to not see what is happening. I have never in my life been more disgusted by you." All this was said calmly and almost politely, and then Kurama turned slightly, so he was addressing both Yusuke and Hiei. "We'll leave in the morning." He turned and disappeared, fast and silent, into the forest.

They both watched him leave, then glanced uneasily at each other. "Doesn't set much store by your ability to live, does he," Hiei commented.

"Or your ability to think." Both their voices were flat, dispirited. Yusuke was already positive that this was one of the most depressing situations he'd ever been in. Getting to the summit mattered, more than anything, and in that sense he had won. But to know that he was yet again the cause of a split between Hiei and Kurama, to know that Kurama would for the first time in all these years be accompanying Yusuke out of duty and not free will--it was a hollow victory.

Hiei turned away. "Where are you going?" Yusuke asked.

"We're not leaving until morning." Which wasn't really a reply to the question, but nonetheless implied the answer: that Hiei would be unavailable until then. Sure enough, the next thing Yusuke knew Hiei had done his trademark vanishing act, there one second and gone the next.

Either he was going as far away from Kurama as physically possible, or he was pursuing him to continue the argument. Yusuke guessed the latter. Since the explosion that Yusuke had provoked Hiei and Kurama were back to pretty much constantly quarreling--or at least, Yusuke assumed they were. He couldn't be sure because they did most of their conversing out of his presence these days. It was bizarre. They would start to snipe at each other, the tension would escalate, Yusuke would start to prepare for the explosion and then--a nod, a brisk tap on the shoulder, a jerk of the head. One of them would signal the other, and the next thing Yusuke knew he was alone.

It could be minutes or hours before they came back, and when they did they always resumed training where they had left off and ignored anything Yusuke had to say about their absence. It was clear they had reached an agreement not to argue in front of him anymore, and since they hadn't had any qualms about that in the beginning it must be that the subject matter of their arguments had changed. Yusuke could only guess they were back to their original argument, whatever had shattered their friendship in the first place--but he couldn't imagine any argument so bitter that ten years later, their closest friend couldn't be allowed to overhear a single detail. As hard as he tried, he couldn't imagine it.

If nothing else came out of this crazy mess, he could at least congratulate himself on blowing the top off of ten years of silence. Even if he was as much in the dark as he had been before.

Yusuke was still outside the cave, barely having moved, when Hiei came back. The time in between had been so long that the sun had set, and Yusuke was halfway dozing. "Hey, Hiei," he said without opening his eyes.

"You aren't usually this way before a fight," Hiei greeted him.

"Hm?"

"Depressed. You're usually eager or determined."

"Yeah, well, I'm used to having you guys with me, you know? Not just with me like next to me, but with me. Like you want to be. Not like you don't trust me not to get killed, so you'll come even though you're basically being forced into it. I hate this."

"So don't do it."

Yusuke finally opened his eyes. "Are you changing your mind?"

Hiei shook his head, once. "No. I just mean we shouldn't wait until tomorrow morning to leave."

"That's what we all agreed on, though."

"Exactly."

Only then did it penetrate through Yusuke's gloom what Hiei was angling at. He frowned. "Hiei..."

"I've thought it through. He doesn't want to come. He just feels obligated to you. So much so that he'd participate in a battle he doesn't want to fight in and doesn't believe can turn out well. That's not good for you anymore than it is for him. So do us all a favor. End the situation."

"It--that--" Yusuke was stunned by Hiei's assessment, so much so that instead of answering he sought to bring up a different topic. "That's not even the point. I suck, Hiei, I know that. Don't we need him? Just you and I..."

"More difficult."

"Is it even possible for us to win?"

"I don't know."

They faced each other bleakly for a moment. Hiei had not tried to dodge the question or make the answer sound better than it was. "But you still want to do it."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I've explained myself as far as I intend to. But I will take a minute to express my displeasure that you've apparently become so coddled by Kurama and I that you won't enter into a fight unless you know you can win."

"That's not true!"

"Then what are you waiting for?"

"The rest of my team?"

"So you'll force him to go."

"He wants to... I mean, he doesn't want to go, but he does if I do." It came out sounding confusing, where it had seemed clear in his head.

Hiei shrugged. "I've noticed in the past that a lot of what humans call friendship involves taking turns inflicting and enduring suffering of some kind. Maybe it works for you two. So do what you want. I'm leaving tonight."

"If I stay, what will you do?"

"Fight the drug lords, of course. You and Kurama can continue training."

"And you'd come back," Yusuke said, in a tone that indicated he didn't believe for a second that Hiei would.

Hiei didn't answer for a moment. "You're past the worst parts," he finally said. "You've broken the addiction. It's only a matter of time before you build your strength up to where it was. You don't need me to do that."

"Hiei--this is hands-down your worst trait," Yusuke fumed, anger piqued. "You walk out on your friends, and every time you do it you justify it and wave it away by pretending we didn't really need you in the first place when you know we--"

"Who's walking out?" Hiei cut him off. "I'm telling you exactly what I'm doing and offering you the option to come with me."

"You're not walking out on me. You and Kurama made a deal--"

"We agreed to work together until you could stand on your own. We didn't agree how we would decide when that was. I think it's now. What do you think?"

"... I don't know."

Hiei shrugged again. "Well, decide. Quickly. If you think you aren't ready, then stay here with your nanny. If you think you are, I can help you travel at my speed. We'll be at the summit by tomorrow morning."

The subtext was impossible to miss. We'll be there by the time Kurama knows we're gone. "You would seriously go there without me?"

"Why not?"

"It's my fight."

"Then fight it."

Yusuke stood up, slowly. "I can't let you get there before me. I have to be the one to do this. You know that. You're counting on it."

Hiei said nothing. Yusuke stared at him, trying to make it all make sense in his head. It felt wrong... but there was some truth to what Hiei said about Kurama feeling obligated, of Yusuke forcing him. How much truth? Would Yusuke really be relieving Kurama of an obligation he didn't want, or just allowing the same thing to happen that had happened ten years ago: the fight between Hiei and Kurama branching out, crumbling the ties that held them all together, the first and resounding break that heralded the eventual destruction of their whole team.

And if he wanted to see patterns being played out again and again... there was a certain kind of poetic justice to where he now found himself. Only it was worse this time, now that they were his friends, to see Hiei and Kurama break an alliance over him. To watch while one of them went behind the other's back and reached out to him...

...with something he desperately needed.

It didn't matter. It didn't matter whether Hiei was right or wrong, it only mattered that he wasn't leaving Yusuke a choice. Yusuke had to be at that fight. Hiei was going to start it. So Yusuke had to put himself where Hiei was.

He nodded, slowly, putting everything but the thought of the coming battle out of his head. "Okay. Let's go."